18 Gallery is proud to host famous Zhang Dali solo show. Zhang strated working in portraiture as one of Beijing's first graffiti artist, spraying and carving head into the walls of buildings schedules for destruction.

For his first exhibition at the 18Gallery, Zhang Dali presents a very intense project. Gigantic painted portraits facing up the visitor as soon as he comes into the show.

18Gallery is proud to host famous Zhang Dali solo show with a very intense project (born in 1963 in Harbin, China and based in Beijing). As the visitor comes into the show he is facing Zhang Dali's gigantic, almost four meters high, painted portraits.

When asked why AK-47 written all over the paintings. One will discover that this was Zhang Dali's tag back in the days. « It comes from a gang's name. I use this to stand for the violence. This sort of violence doesn't just mean one person hits another person. »

Zhang Dali's work actively engages with the rapidly changing environment in China. Zhang started working in portraiture as one of Beijing's first graffiti artists, spraying and carving heads into the walls of the hundreds of buildings scheduled for destruction. Working across a wide variety of media - from urban art, to archiving photographs of Mao, and large scale installations - Zhang's portraits document a contemporary social history of a culture in radical development and flux.

Zhang trained at the Beijing Central Academy of Art & Design. After studying painting in China, he went to Italy, where he discovered graffiti art. He was the only graffiti artist in Beijing throughout the early 1990s, and is the first artist since Keith Haring and Jackson Pollock to be given the cover of Time magazine.

From 1995 to 1998 he spray-painted over 2000 giant profiles of his own bald head on buildings throughout Beijing, placing the images alongside 'chai' characters painted by the city authorities to indicate that a building is scheduled for demolition. The appearance of these images became the subject of media debate in Beijing in 1998.

He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including the International Center for Photography in New York, Courtyard Gallery in Beijing, Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo and the 2006 Gwangju Biennale in Korea. He is represented by Kiang Gallery in Atlanta, Eli Klein Fine Art in New York and Base Gallery in Tokyo.

On the occasion of the publication of the book, From style writing to art, a street art anthology by Magda Danysz, the gallery organizes a Graffiti and Street art exhibition which get together the masters of the 70s as well as their most important successors and the renovators of street art.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A graffiti and abstract art show featuring a diverse group of artists in NYC's most eclectic LES bar. Since 1984, Mars Bar has been hangout for downtown artists such as Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Lee and still maintains its "Old New York" gritty authenticity which is rare to find today.

GRIMACE * TROOL22 * MR. BLUNT * WAAAK * JAMES.TOP * JESUS SAVES * BINHO (Brazil) and a dozen + other artists will be presenting their works. In addition to canvases, the ENTIRE BAR and interior walls will be custom painted by the artists on a never-seen-before-scale making MARS BAR a classic New York City living art piece of its own. A must see to believe this Sunday December 20th!

"What if every store had a bar codesticker on its window so that you could pull out your iPhone (Android) wave it in front of the bar code and get all sorts of information about that business—the telephone number, photos, customer reviews?"

It's just a way of encoding Web addresses.

You can make your own for free at places like QR Stuff and delivr. Also Kaywa lets you encode text, SMS, etc.

It’s time for italian street art to gain visibilty in the rest of the world.
We know we have some of the most amazing street artists and we want to share them with you.
Be ready for one of the most exciting italian street art group show ever.

35 original artworks made by some of the most talented Italian street artists.

XENZFamed for his beautiful landscapes depicting the natural world, British spray can artist, Xenz is back with a new body of work, which goes on sale today. Adding to his stunning portfolio, this is a collection of original works on canvas, paper, and discarded objects found on streets of London.

For the first time in North America, Chile Estyle will showcase work from a comprehensive selection of the top tier of Chile’s contemporary urban muralists.

The Chile Estyle featured artists, Cekis, Inti, Horate, La Robot de Madera and theduos Aislap and Agotok, are representative of the first and second generation of artists that started working on the streets in the Post-Pinochet era. The exhibition will consist of new works on canvas as well as site-specific individual and group mural installations in the gallery.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Parkstone Press / Sirrocco Publishing has published a book containing ripped off famous graffiti photographs, among them work by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. The print is very poor quality, probably resulting from the practice of just scanning other books, which is becoming all too common in Asia.

The author, Margo Thompson, reportedly also got scammed, giving away her work for free ("Art Books don't make money"). She relied on Parkstone / Sirrocco to clear the copyright materials used in the book.

Parkstone / Sirrocco are also apparently famous for cheating translators who simply do not get paid for their work, then recruiting new translators for the next job. The same thing seems to have happened to the translator of the German version of "American Graffiti." (Even the title is a bite!)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Well folks, our charity event to benefit The Children of a Coalition for the Homeless is this Thursday the 3rd at 8pm @ naked lunch Lounge 17 Thompson Street NY, NY (corner of Grand) A train to Canal Street.

I hope you all can attend, if you can't make it but would like to donate a toy, please know we can arrange a pickup some how.

Remember this is the season for giving, imagine yourself as a child and how excited you were on Christmas day awaiting to open your gifts in the comfort of a warm home, imagine your children opening gift, and the smiles upon their faces. Now picture a child with no home, and no expectation of a gift from anyone, that has lost everything opening a gift that you provided, and you being responsible for making that child smile.

If this doesn't motivate you to help, I don't know what will a child smiling because of you, a child that no longer has anything to smile about smiling because of you is wow. I know times are hard all around but sometimes, we must step outside of ourselves, and realize others have it much worse. Lets reflect collectively, lets laugh together at the comedy charity event, so that a child can smile. Hope to see you all on Thursday. Please feel free to forward this email and help promote this event.

Free food, free comedy at the event, raffles ... have a blessed day!!!!!

AE DISTRICT (MIAMI, FL), EASTERN DISTRICT (BROOKLYN, NY) AND AD HOC ART (BROOKLYN, NY) TEAM UP TO BRING THE BEST OF BROOKLYN TO THE HEART OF MIAMI DESIGN DISTRICT

December 3, 2009 at 7PM - Opening Night Reception with Artists

Miami-based conceptual gallery AE District is proud to partner with Brooklyn-based galleries Eastern District and Ad Hoc to bring you over 40 artists ranging from all mediums and styles that best represent the aesthetics and vision of the Brooklyn art scene.

With Miami serving as the perfect backdrop for this diverse group of artistry, BKMIA shines the spotlight on the unique alliance between the two cities as well as showcase the similarities of both cultures in relations to the contemporary art world.

INKIE, the King Pin of the UK Graffiti scene for the past 25 years returns this Christmas to bring us a whole sack-full of original art works, canvases, prints, toys, sculptures, T-shirts and books from some of Europe’s finest artists. This urban pop up shop is one of it’s kind, and will be found popping-up in delightful Cork Street, Mayfair, the hub of London’s Art finery. This is the first of many Flying Eyeball Productions so watch this art space! This Christmas Pop up shop is the strongest visual feast from any European Urban Art Exhibition this season.

From the 8th-12th December the pop up shop will open its doors to the public just in time to snap up some one-of-a kind, quirky Christmas gifts, perfect for the man or woman who has everything. 24 carat gold leaf prints from INKIE and 28 colour screen prints from Drum and Bass legend Goldie, will be on offer to tickle your festive fancy. Other stocking filler goodies include unique sculptures and toys.

Albus Cavus, a DC non-profit public art organization, is taking participatory public art from the outside to the inside of DC classrooms. Albus Cavus wants to encourage hundreds of DC kids to become active and engaged residents. We are empowering young artists with the creative skills to improve their neighborhoods.

Albus Cavus Classroom in Spring 2010 is open every weekend for 20 weeks (January - May 2010) at The Fridge, an artist space on Capitol Hill. The instructors are the artists whose murals are all around the city: in Edgewood, Columbia Heights, and Pleasant Plains.

Alexander Stolypin, alias Psyckoze, is the descendant of a celebrated family who served under the Russian tsars. Born in January 1969, his future name, Psyckoze NoLimit, is a response to Punk Not Dead, which is paradoxically quite far from the hip-hop culture. Self-taught, he is one of the first "street writers" to give an artistic dimension to graffiti in the early 90s. From 1994 to 1997, while continuing to practice his art in the street, Psyckoze develops his work on canvas. It represents a world haunted by stylized and faceless characters, lost in an urban world and suffocating. "I'd say my style is built around three dominant values: a raw art side, a pop art and graphic side, and finally a narrative and dreamlike side. My work has always been built around these three components, evolving over the years.”

Graffiti R.U.A. – Editon: New-old - school

In the world that we’re living in, where the relationships becomes every time more impersonal, in a world that always preaches the individualism as a goal, do the collective is what becomes the truly art. Where the other represents no more happiness, but the fear, the threat, is time we represent solutions so we can approach again, for that the culture of competition be just one way, and not another stay, seeing the artistic doing as one of the main instruments for that to happens.

The project “Graffiti R.U.A” (Reunidos por Um Amor)(united by a love) in its first edition, arises from the need to integrate artists and/or writers of graffiti of new and old-school, joining them in collective panels, approaching generations and rethinking preconceptions of what art really means. Going beyond the purely esthetic concern and demystifying the artist that became slave of the own ego, connecting to deeper sense that the interaction and union trough this practical and that approaches us looking for humanization, having art to the service of people , as a cultural legacy of all.

Local Las Vegas Artist and self publisher Vezun is having an art show and book release at the Ortego Gallery in the Arts Factory on December 3 & 4, 2009 from 6 - 10 pm. He will be exhibiting all the originals from his latest book.

A.M. vol 3 is a collection of short stories in comic book form. This book also contains some one panel comics. He will be signing and selling the book along with his previous books. Upon request Vezun does drawings for people.

Graffiti Gone Global in celebration of Art Basel 2009 conveys the dexterity of street art around the world. From traditional to experimental graffiti art visitors can gauge and enjoy the broad spectrum of work from Brazil Japan Peru and beyond. From its humble beginnings to its popular and exotic standing in today's society we aim to feature a complex cornucopia of urban street art.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Solid Gallery One and I Wuz Here proudly host the group exhibition, "Not For Sale". This show brings legendary artists together to present works that they will not be parting with, thus spawning the concept "Not For Sale". This exhibition is being curated by Angerone, who hand selected this group of renowned artists which include Hex, Mear One, Kofie, Haste, Relic, Spurn, Lizzy Lomax, Nic Nak, Newa, Chip, Nace and Axis Valhalla. To acquire one of the masterpieces on display, Solid Gallery One will have exclusive signed and numbered prints available.

"Not For Sale" is a show that is sure to go down as one that is not to be missed and we look forward to seeing you all there!

an exhibition curated by Two Rabbits Studios and featuring the best selection of hand printed art posters by some of today's most innovative street artists, activists, and designers. As hand-printed art posters re-emerge in suburban and urban areas all over the world communicating political and social messages to everyday people, Crewest takes a moment to platform this growing genre and open its doors for the public to enjoy. Prints, prints and more prints are what you will see in December at Crewest!

Opening Reception: Saturday, December 5th, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm featuring live printing by Two Rabbits and featured artist Ron Donovan of Firehouse.

The Venice Art Walls need your help. The program that issues free permits to artists to paint on the walls is in desperate need of funding. City of L.A. funding for this program has been cut due to the severe city budget crises. Come help to preserve this important cultural and historic landmark and the spirit of free expression in Venice. All of the funds raised goes to pay the on-site supervisors that work in the area.

An amazing group of talented artists from Los Angeles are donating original paintings, prints, photography and sculpture to this auction to raise funds for this program. Although much of the work is donated by prominent L.A. graffiti artists, or artists doing street influenced art, many of the pieces are not done in a graffiti style. Several artists work in a more traditional style working with brush. There are also several photographers print makers and sculptors. Opening bids start very low.

As always, your suggestions are welcome at info@graffiti.org. Also send events, questions, pictures and news to that address, but please ask before you subscribe it to your mailing list. Much appreciated.

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Although I try to provide reviews for the media and products I think you'd also like, I can't review everything, and sometimes it takes a while because of all the other things I'm doing.